Where are the GOP adults in the room?

I have been in and out of Georgia for over 50 years and seen the political winds shift. I remember the presidential race of 1968 with George Wallace, Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey.

I went to a massive Wallace rally being held on the state Capital steps, down the street from Georgia State where I went to school (having transferred from UGA).

Lester Maddox, a segregationist Democrat, was governor and introduced Wallace with a fiery racist speech. Wallace was tame by comparison, using racial code words.

I still remember seeing the Nixon protestors physically and verbally confronting the Dixiecrat Wallace supporters. Back then, the Republicans here were the moderates.

But, that changed after the election with Nixon’s successful “Southern strategy,” based on dividing working class whites and blacks. And, the 1980 Ronald Reagan takeover of the GOP and his subsequent election built on this theme.

Slowly at first, white Georgia congressmen were elected who were much to the right of their predecessors and eventually these Dixiecrats became Republicans. This rightward trend increased with the advent of the tea party (and accompanying voter suppression, assisted by all three branches of government).

On the national level, the result has been that we now have right-wing radicals in Congress, often in positions of power. Typical of these individuals is our own ex-Rep. Tom Price, an extremist who became President Trump’s Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, spearheading health reform.

Price, supported by virtually every right-wing interest group but incapable of getting bi-partisan legislation through Congress, is against many things. For example, he opposes: family planning and women’s rights in general; any regulation of farming; the ACA (Obamacare); NPR; taxpayer financing of elections; the Emergency Mortgage Relief Program; all forms of gun control and any form of gay rights. (And, before he took office, he was against misuse of private planes by government officials).

Simply put, there is no moderation of any kind in his positions — and that is why he was totally ineffective as a Congressman, as are many on the far right. It is also why he has proven totally ineffective as the Trump point man on health care reform.

Price and his ilk are against any compromise with the other party to get things done and are proud of it. That is why Gallup found that approval ratings for Congress are at historical lows, ranging from about 10 percent to 20 percent, depending on when the poll was done.

The public is fed up with the inertia in Congress, which leads me to where we are now. We had a presidential election with the most disliked candidates in recent history.

As a Republican fiscal conservative, foreign policy libertarian and social liberal, there are a number of things that I liked about Trump during his campaign. For example, I agreed that NATO nations need to pay their debts and immigrants need thorough vetting to make sure their values are consistent with ours.

I especially appreciated the fact that (at least before he began his campaign), he was convinced that the Canadian single-payer system is far superior to ours and stated this fact repeatedly. As a retired health-care executive and state regulatory official, his views prior to his campaign (not since) fit nicely with mine regarding phased in expansion of Medicare to eventually cover all Americans. Bernie Sanders introduced a “Medicare for All” bill on Sept 13; I doubt Trump will support it, but you never know long term.

However, what disturbs me about Trump is his erratic behavior, especially when he is challenged by anyone. But, this is nothing new; people knew it prior to voting for him. Remember the weird Rosie O’Donnell reference in the primary debates and his wild accusations about the father of Ted Cruz and JFK?

There is an obnoxious take no prisoners, no compromise attitude that constitutes the core of his personality and is dangerous in someone with his finger on the nuclear button. Again, that was clear in his campaign debate performances, as was his tendency to lie without reservation (Iraq, birther, etc).

Combined with the fact that in the debates (and since) he has “demonstrated repeatedly that he has little understanding (of) vital national security interests” (from an Aug. 8, 2016 public letter by 50 GOP security officials), it was difficult for me to understand why intelligent people would support him for president. But, many did, both in the primaries and the general election.

A tea party candidate like Trump is a direct result of inaction by an obstructionist GOP led Congress which has accomplished almost nothing since they took control of Congress back in 2010. No wonder the public is alienated and a certain segment would pick Trump, a showman in the mold of PT Barnum, and believe his lies about building walls and making America great again.

Where are the GOP adults in the room and why didn’t they vote against him in the 2016 primaries? Why do they continue to support him even as he ignores proven Russian meddling in our elections?

Are my fellow Republicans that partisan or are they just blind? Is this the ultimate fate of the party of Lincoln?

This story was originally published September 29, 2017 at 4:22 PM with the headline "Where are the GOP adults in the room?."